Question Trying to implement dual-boot with two drives, Win 10 and Win 7. Keyboard/mouse functionality gone on the Win 7

[breezett93]

I bought an ssd from someone with Windows 7 on it. When I initially connected it and booted to it, my keyboard and mouse were working. I then started installing the chipset cd so that I could get networking etc to work. Install needed pc to reboot.
After rebooting, keyboard and mouse stopped working. I tried several of each in different usb ports. I think all the usb ports aren’t responding because speakers, camera, and microphone don’t work either.
If I boot to the win 10 drive, everything works again.
Now I’m stuck on the login screen for the Win 7 drive. What can I do to proceed?

For the dual-boot part, currently my computer ignores which drive I pick and almost always boots to the Win 7 drive. It’s random, and I can’t pinpoint a pattern as to why that’s happening.
My bios is Asus UEFI bios utility 2.16.1240.
Boot option 1 is currently set to Win 10 drive. The new Win 7 drive actually doesn’t show up as a boot option but does show up as a boot override. When I select the Win 10 boot override, it is ignored and boots to the Win 7 drive.
In the Hard Drive BBS Priorities, the ranking is Win 10, Win 7, ssd 3 (no OS).
I can post pictures of the bios screens if that helps.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

I bought an ssd from someone with Windows 7 on it. When I initially connected it and booted to it, my keyboard and mouse were working. I then started installing the chipset cd so that I could get networking etc to work. Install needed pc to reboot.
After rebooting, keyboard and mouse stopped working.

Migrating a drive + OS to a different system often fails.

Win 7? Likely that Will Not Work.

Return the system back to original config, without the new Win 7 drive.

Does it boot up and work?

 

[breezett93]

Yes, after disconnecting the Windows 7 drive, my original Win 10 drive booted normally.

I don't have the product key for the Win 7 drive; so I really don't want to wipe it. Is there anything I can do to make it work on my pc?

 

[Math Geek]

highly unlikely. win 10 is kind of magical in that it can work by swapping the drive maybe half the time. but win 7 never worked like that.

just plugging it in is never going to work. it has to b a fresh install on the target system.

about the only thing you can do is to boot to win 10 with the other drive connected and see if you can get the key out of the registry from the win 7 drive. then do a fresh install with it once you have it. otherwise you stand no chance of getting it to work.

or you can possibly boot to a command prompt and get it from the drive that way. you'll have to google the command to get the key as i don't remember it and it is rather long if i recall right.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't have the product key for the Win 7 drive; so I really don't want to wipe it. Is there anything I can do to make it work on my pc?

Even if it did work, which it won't....it will become Unlicensed after 30 days.

Did the seller give you the actual license key?
(as is required by the MS licensing rules)

 

[DSzymborski]

Honestly, this disk should be completely wiped and fresh-installed anyway. You should never be using a copy of Windows that someone else had, for simple security reasons. Nothing prevents them from leaving little surprises like keyloggers or whatnot and you have no idea what else they could have on this PC.

And since installing Windows properly on a build rather than just slapping another install in is the gold standard, it's a complete no-brainer to do anyway. Windows 10 tries and does a pretty good job when people cut corners, but you can find gremlins months from now. Except for an emergency situation, it's best to not play Dr. Frankenstein.

 

[USAFRet]

Honestly, this disk should be completely wiped and fresh-installed anyway. You should never be using a copy of Windows that someone else had, for simple security reasons. Nothing prevents them from leaving little surprises like keyloggers or whatnot and you have no idea what else they could have on this PC.

And its not just the person that gave/sold you the drive, but every person that ever used that system.

 

[breezett93]

@Math Geek I used ProduKey to find the key on the drive. Thank you!!

Any chance you know where to download Win 7 Pro?

Is this legitimate? https://archive.org/details/win-7-pro-32-64-iso

 

[Math Geek]

use this

https://archive.org/details/windows-iso-downloader

select win 7 aug 2018 option. select the proper version you need and it will grab a copy from MS servers directly. no guessing if it is legit or not.

 

[SkyNetRising]

For the dual-boot part, currently my computer ignores which drive I pick and almost always boots to the Win 7 drive. It’s random, and I can’t pinpoint a pattern as to why that’s happening.
I can post pictures of the bios screens if that helps.

Probably because windows 10 is installed in UEFI mode,
windows 7 is installed in legacy mode and
legacy mode is tried first.

Yes, pictures usually are very helpful.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

After rebooting, keyboard and mouse stopped working. I tried several of each in different usb ports.
Now I’m stuck on the login screen for the Win 7 drive. What can I do to proceed?

Get PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
Then install USB drivers.

 

[breezett93]

I am getting error 0x80300024 after trying to select the new ssd as the install location for win 7 pro.
Articles were giving all kinds of different info as to the cause. I do still have the main win 10 drive connected. Should I disconnect it for the install? I also tried several other usb ports including non 3.0.

 

[DSzymborski]

The desired OS drive should always be the only drive installed. Did you wipe and reinstall Windows 10 on that drive? Again, it's dangerous to use an install that a stranger made.

 

[breezett93]

The desired OS drive should always be the only drive installed. Did you wipe and reinstall Windows 10 on that drive? Again, it's dangerous to use an install that a stranger made.

I have win 10 on one drive and trying to put win 7 on a second drive. (I have a third drive that holds the games etc that the two OS drives will utilize. ) I wiped the original win 7 from the person i bought from. I used the iso recommended several posts above.

*update: I disconnected the Win 10 drive and applied the nvme hotfix to the win 7 install. It worked. So now, I need to get all the drivers installed. Once that’s done, i will reconnect the win 10 drive.
Could I get a good tutorial for setting up dual-boot between the two drives?

 

[DSzymborski]

I have win 10 on one drive and trying to put win 7 on a second drive. (I have a third drive that holds the games etc that the two OS drives will utilize. ) I wiped the original win 7 from the person i bought from. I used the iso recommended several posts above.

And was the Windows 10 wiped? Or are you still using the one someone gave you? I think it's a fairly straightforward question.

 

[breezett93]

And was the Windows 10 wiped? Or are you still using the one someone gave you? I think it's a fairly straightforward question.

No, the original Win 7 from the seller was wiped and replaced with a new Win 7. The Win 10 is my main OS; so Im keeping that one. A program I used to use doesn’t work on Win 10 but did on Win 7 and 8.1.